1928 New Bedford textile strike

While other mills were involved, the locus of the 1928 New Bedford strike was the massive Wamsutta cotton mill works.

The 1928 New Bedford textile strike was a mass work stoppage of approximately 30,000 machinery operatives in several of the large cotton mills located in New Bedford, Massachusetts, USA. The strike, which ran for several months during the spring and summer of 1928, is remembered for the prominent role played by the Workers (Communist) Party of America in mobilizing the immigrant workers of the region.

The strike began April 16, 1928, over a proposed 10 percent wage cut for factory operatives. Strikers demanded not only the abolition of the planned cut in wages but a 20 percent wage increase and implementation of the 40-hour work week. After considerable controversy control of the strike passed from the Communist-led Textile Mill Committee (TMC) to sundry craft unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor.

The strike ended in early October when negotiators for the seven non-Communist craft unions representing the strikers accepted the offer of mill owners for a 5 percent wage cut and promises of 30 days' notice before implementation of any further wage reductions. After ratifying the contract over the weekend, strikers defied a last ditch TMC effort to derail the agreement and returned to work on Monday, October 8.

As a radical-led labor stoppage in the American textile industry, the New Bedford strike was the successor to the 1926 Passaic strike and the precursor to the 1929 Gastonia strike, both of which tumultuous events are better remembered to history.

Contents

Location of Bristol County, where the port city of New Bedford is located.

During the 19th Century the coastal city of New Bedford, Massachusetts, emerged as the largest whaling port in the world.[1] Some 10,000 seamen shipped from New Bedford to kill and process whales into oil for lighting and machine lubricants and bone for use in corsets.[1] The life was difficult and hard for whaling ship crews but lucrative for shipbuilders, shipowners, and merchants, and the local economy prospered.[1]

The situation began to change in the years after the American Civil War, however, with the profitability of whaling falling dramatically with the discovery and widespread manufacture of kerosene for fuel and petroleum-based machine oil for use as a lubricant.[2] An increased emphasis began being placed on obtaining baleen for corsets, which mandated trips to Arctic waters where baleen whales proliferated.[2] This would end catastrophically in the winter of 1871, when an early return of ice on the ocean trapped and annihilated the entire Arctic fleet, including 32 ships based in New Bedford.[2] A second, smaller catastrophe followed in 1876, resulting in the loss of 12 more ships.[2] By the end of the 1870s prosperous shipbuilders and merchants were looking to leave the dying and unprofitable whaling industry in favor of new forms of capital investment.[2]

Other cities throughout the Northeastern region during the second half of the 19th Century based their local economies upon textile manufacturing, with some 600 mills being scattered across the region by the start of the 1860s.[3] Other lower cost mills dotted the American South, staffed by a labor force willing to accept lesser wages in the wake of a collapsed post-war economy.[3] These mills specialized in low cost, easily produced cotton goods of middling quality, leaving an opening in the marketplace for finely produced cotton textiles.[4] It was to the manufacture of these finer milled goods that New Bedford investors turned when the local economy pivoted from the manufacture of whale oil to fabrics.[5]

While the Wamsutta Mills, established in 1846, predated the turn of the local economy from whaling to textile making, between 1880 and the coming of World War I the pioneer firm had been joined by another 32 companies, valued at a massive $100 million and employing 30,000 people.[6] The industry prospered and New Bedford boomed in the four decades after 1880, growing in population from 40,000 to more than 120,000.[7]

Many of these new arrivals were immigrants — English, Irish, and Germans with prior experience in the milling industry, followed later by French-Canadians, Poles, Syrians, and Portuguese (including the descendants of former slaves from the Portuguese colonies of the Azores and Cabo Verde).[8] Very few American blacks worked in the mills of New Bedford, with one 1900 survey counting just 25 out of a population of just over 11,000 factory workers.[8] These workers lived in densely populated neighborhoods at the north and south of the city, with the owning and financial class living in the prosperous city center.[9]

Boy operatives in the mule room of the Wamsutta Mill in New Bedford, January 1912, as photographed by anti-child labor activist Lewis Hine (1874-1940).

During the middle years of the 1920s, competitive pressure in the era of post-World War Ideflation kept wages of factory operatives unusually low, with the Massachusetts Department of Labor reporting average weekly wages for New Bedford textile workers of $19.95.[10] Things deteriorated further during the first three months of 1928, with that same governmental body making note of a further weekly wage fall to just $19.00.[10]

Local employers, feeling the pressure of modern factories in the low-wage South sought further wage reductions in an effort to remain competitive.[11] In April 1928 united action was enacted by the New Bedford Cotton Manufacturers' Association in unilaterally slashing wages a further 10 percent across the board.[11] This cut was met by the collective action of the New Bedford Textile Council,[11] which approved a work stoppage slated to begin on Monday, April 16, 1928 by a vote of 2,571 to 188.[12] The job stoppage in protest of the proposed 10 percent cut in wages to affect almost all of the 30,000 workers employed in the cotton, rayon, and woolen mills of New Bedford.[12]

Most of the minority of New Bedford workers who were unionized ahead of the 1928 strike were from the highly skilled trades — loom fixers, weavers, warp twisters, and the like — who were generally native-born and English-speaking.[11] Those unorganized were more often than not unskilled or low skilled immigrants, forced to perform the dirtiest and most monotonous jobs and barred by union protection by the rigid craft structure of the New Bedford union movement.[11]

1.
Strike action
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Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances, Strikes became common during the Industrial Revolution, when mass labor became important in factories and mines. In most countries, strike actions were made illegal, as factory owners had far more power than workers. Most Western countries partially legalized striking in the late 19th or early 20th centuries, Strikes are sometimes used to pressure governments to change policies. Notable examples are the 1980 Gdańsk Shipyard or 1981 Warning Strike, official publications have typically used the more neutral words work stoppage or industrial dispute. The first historically certain account of action was towards the end of the 20th dynasty. The artisans of the Royal Necropolis at Deir el-Medina walked off their jobs because they had not been paid, the Egyptian authorities raised the wages. An early predecessor of the strike may have been the secessio plebis in ancient Rome. In the Outline Of History, H. G. Wells characterized this event as the strike of the plebeians, the plebeians seem to have invented the strike. The strike action became a feature of the political landscape with the onset of the Industrial Revolution. For the first time in history, large numbers of people were members of the working class, they lived in cities. By the 1830s, when the Chartist movement was at its peak, in 1842 the demands for fairer wages and conditions across many different industries finally exploded into the first modern general strike. Instead of being a spontaneous uprising of the masses, the strike was politically motivated and was driven by an agenda to win concessions. Probably as much as half of the industrial work force were on strike at its peak – over 500,000 men. The local leadership marshalled a growing working class tradition to organize their followers to mount an articulate challenge to the capitalist. Friedrich Engels, an observer in London at the time, wrote, by its numbers, this class has become the most powerful in England, the English proletarian is only just becoming aware of his power, and the fruits of this awareness were the disturbances of last summer. Karl Marx has condemned the theory of Proudhon criminalizing strike action in his work The Poverty of Philosophy, in 1937 there were 4,740 strikes in the United States. This was the greatest strike wave in American labor history, the number of major strikes and lockouts in the U. S. fell by 97% from 381 in 1970 to 187 in 1980 to only 11 in 2010

2.
New Bedford, Massachusetts
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New Bedford is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 95,072. The city, along with Fall River and Taunton, make up the three largest cities in the South Coast region of Massachusetts, the Greater Providence-Fall River-New Bedford area is home to the largest Portuguese-American community in the United States. Their population is believed to have been about 12,000, while exploring New England, Bartholomew Gosnold landed on Cuttyhunk Island on May 15,1602. From there, he explored Cape Cod and the neighboring areas, however, rather than settle the area, he returned to England at the request of his crew. Europeans first settled New Bedford in 1652, English Plymouth Colony settlers purchased the land from chief Massasoit of the Wampanoag tribe. Whether the transfer of the land was legitimately done has been the subject of intense controversy, like other native tribes, the Wampanoags did not share the settlers concepts of private property. The tribe may have believed they were granting usage rights to the land, the settlers used the land to build the colonial town of Old Dartmouth. The name was suggested by the Russell family, who were prominent citizens of the community, the Dukes of Bedford, a leading English aristocratic house, also bore the surname Russell. The late-18th century was a time of growth for the town, New Bedfords first newspaper, The Medley, was founded in 1792. On June 12,1792, the set up its first post office. William Tobey was its first postmaster, the construction of a bridge between New Bedford and present-day Fairhaven in 1796 also spurred growth. In 1847 the town of New Bedford officially became a city, at approximately the same time, New Bedford began to supplant Nantucket as the nations preeminent whaling port, thanks to its deeper harbor and location on the mainland. Whaling dominated the economy of the city for much of the century, many families of the city were involved with it as crew and officers of ships. Until 1800, New Bedford and its communities were, by and large, populated by Protestants of English, Scottish. During the first half of the 19th century many Irish people came to Massachusetts, in 1818, Irish immigrants established the Catholic mission that built St. Marys Church. As the Portuguese community began to increase, they established the first Portuguese parish in the city, French Canadians also secured a foothold in New Bedford at about the same time, and they built the Church of the Sacred Heart in 1877. Similarly, Polish immigrants began arriving in the late 19th century, a number of Jewish families, arriving in the late 19th century, were active in the whaling industry, selling provisions and outfitting ships

3.
Communist Party, USA
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The Communist Party USA is a communist political party in the United States. Established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America, it has a long, complex history that is tied with the U. S. labor movement. For the first half of the 20th century, the Communist Party was an influential force in various struggles for democratic rights. It played a prominent role in the U. S. S, by August 1919, only months after its founding, the Communist Party claimed 50,000 to 60,000 members. Members also included anarchists and other radical leftists, at the time, the older and more moderate Socialist Party of America, suffering from criminal prosecutions for its antiwar stance during World War I, had declined to 40,000 members. But the Communist Partys early labor and organizing successes did not last, by 1957, membership had dwindled to less than 10,000, of whom some 1,500 were informants for the FBI. At the same time, the partys aging membership demographics and noticeably hollow calls for peaceful coexistence failed to speak to a new Left in the United States. In 1989, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union cut off funding to the CPUSA due to its opposition to glasnost. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the party held its convention, the majority reasserted the partys now purely Marxist outlook, prompting a minority faction which urged social democrats to exit the now reduced party. The party has since adopted Marxism-Leninism within its program, in 2014, the new draft of the party constitution declared, We apply the scientific outlook developed by Marx, Engels, Lenin and others in the context of our American history, culture, and traditions. The Communist Party USA is based in New York City, for decades, its West Coast newspaper was the Peoples World, and its East Coast newspaper was The Daily World. The two newspapers merged in 1986 into the Peoples Weekly World, the PWW has since become an online only publication, called Peoples World. The partys former theoretical journal, Political Affairs Magazine, is now published exclusively online. In June 2014, the Party held its 30th National Convention in Chicago, against homophobia and all manifestations of discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people. Among the points in the partys Immediate Program are a minimum wage for all workers, national universal health care. The Communist Party USA emphasizes a vision of socialism as an extension of American democracy, millions of workers are unemployed, underemployed, or insecure in their jobs, even during economic upswings and periods of recovery from recessions. Most workers experience long years of stagnant and declining wages, while health. Many workers are forced to second and third jobs to make ends meet

4.
American Federation of Labor
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The American Federation of Labor was a national federation of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in December 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers of the Cigar Makers International Union was elected president of the Federation at its convention and was reelected every year except one until his death in 1924. The American Federation of Labor organized as an association of trade unions in 1886, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions also merged into what would become the American Federation of Labor. In January 1886, the Cigar Manufacturers Association of New York City attempted to flex its muscle by announcing a 20 percent wage cut in factories around the city. The Cigar Makers International Union refused to accept the cut and 6,000 of its members in 19 factories were locked out by the owners, a strike lasting four weeks ensued. The leadership of the CMIU was enraged and demanded that the New York District Assembly be investigated and punished by the officials of the Knights of Labor. The committee of investigation was controlled by individuals friendly to the New York District Assembly, however, the American Federation of Labor was thus originally formed as an alliance of craft unions outside the Knights of Labor as a means of defending themselves against this and similar incursions. The call stated that an element of the Knights of Labor was doing work and causing incalculable mischief by arousing antagonisms. Forty-three invitations were mailed, which drew the attendance of 20 delegates, the actions of the New York District Assembly of the K of L were upheld. Forty-two delegates representing 13 national unions and various local labor organizations responded to the call. Revenue for the new organization was to be raised on the basis of a tax of its member organizations. Governance of the organization was to be by annual conventions, with one delegate allocated for every 4,000 members of each affiliated union. Gompers would ultimately be re-elected to the position by annual conventions of the organization for every year one until his death nearly four decades later. Headway was made in the form of endorsement by various local labor bodies, the group from the outset concentrated upon the income and working conditions of its membership as its almost sole focus. The AFLs founding convention declaring higher wages and a shorter workday to be preliminary steps toward great, participation in partisan politics was avoided as inherently divisive, and the groups constitution was structured to prevent the admission of political parties as affiliates. The AFL faced its first major reversal when employers launched an open shop movement in 1903 designed to drive out of construction, mining, longshore. Ever the pragmatist, Gompers argued that labor should reward its friends, after 1908, the organizations tie to the Democratic party grew increasingly strong

5.
1926 Passaic textile strike
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The 1926 Passaic textile strike was a work stoppage by over 15,000 woolen mill workers in and around Passaic, New Jersey, over wage issues in several factories in the vicinity. It was the first Communist-led work stoppage in the United States, the event was memorialized by a seven reel silent movie intended to generate sympathy and funds for the striking workers. In the middle part of the 1920s, there were over 16,000 workers employed in the wool and silk mills located in and around Passaic, New Jersey. The largest of the mills in the area, the German-owned Botany Worsted Mill, employed 6,400 workers, the workers at these facilities were predominantly foreign-born, including among them representatives of 39 nationalities, with immigrants from Poland, Italy, Russia, Hungary in particular evidence. Fully half the workforce was female, Wages of these workers were miserable. A1926 survey indicated that male workers in the Passaic textile mills averaged wages of from $1,000 to $1,200 per year, while female workers typically earned from $800 to $1,000 per annum. Female workers worked 10 hours a day to earn this sum, with the pace of work rapid and the use of the piecework system prevalent. With an income of approximately $1,400 estimated to be necessary to maintain a basic American standard of living and this was not just a question of creature comforts for many Passaic textile workers, but a matter of life and death. Sanitary conditions were poor and a long work week in poorly ventilated facilities resulted in a higher than average rate of tuberculosis as well as other diseases. The affected workers had little recourse to their situation, a conscious effort was made by the mill owners to employ as many different nationalities as possible in their facilities, thereby making the task of labor organization even more difficult. A majority of the strikers were foreign-born, with the biggest percentage being Poles, in the fall of 1925, after first applying economic pressure to household budgets by the cutting of work hours, Passaics largest mill, Botany, implemented a 10% wage cut. This cut was matched at once by all the mills in the area. Weisbord moved into the void, establishing a United Front Committee of Textile Workers — a de facto union organizing committee for the supposedly unorganizable immigrant mill hands. Within about 2 months, the UFC had enrolled about 1,000 workers in its ranks to fight the cut at the Botany Worsted Mill. On January 21,1926, a worker speaking out for the United Front Committee was fired from the Botany Worsted Mills for his organizing activity, sparking worker unrest. A committee of 3 was elected by the members of the UFC to meet with the manager of the Botany facility to discuss the firing. This committee was told in no uncertain terms that any known to be members of the UFC would be similarly terminated. Another meeting of the UFC followed on January 25, at which it was decided to elect a committee of 45 to meet again with management, instead of negotiating, the manager of the mill chose to fire the entire committee on the spot

6.
Bristol County, Massachusetts
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Bristol County is a county in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. As of the 2010 census, the population was 548,285, some governmental functions are performed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, others by the county, and others by local towns and cities. The property deed records are kept in Taunton, Attleboro, Fall River, Bristol County is part of the Providence-Warwick, RI-MA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Boston-Worcester-Providence, MA-RI-NH-CT Combined Statistical Area. The county is adjacent to the state of Rhode Island, the adjacent counties are Plymouth County, Norfolk County, Bristol County, Rhode Island, Newport County, Rhode Island, Providence County, Rhode Island, and Dukes County. Bristol County was created by the Plymouth Colony on June 2,1685, the Plymouth Colony merged into the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1691. The towns of Bristol, Barrington, and Warren were awarded to Rhode Island in 1746 as part of a boundary dispute, forming Bristol County. East Freetown was officially purchased by Freetown, Massachusetts, from Tiverton in 1747, after the departure of Bristol, Taunton was made the shire town of the county. A second county courthouse was constructed in 1828 in the town of New Bedford. In 1862, part of Seekonk and the entirety of East Pawtucket were transferred to Providence County, at the same time, land ceded from Rhode Island was added to Fall River and Westport. The growing Fall River became the site of the county courthouse in 1877. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 691 square miles. The highest point in Bristol County is Sunrise Hill at 390 feet above sea level located in World War I Memorial Park in North Attleborough and it is also to note that Bristol, Plymouth and Taunton are all places in South West England. Their Massachusetts cousins were named after the originals as South West England was the point for sailing. John Cabot set sail from Bristol and sailed down the Severn on which lies Newport over in Wales and he then stumbled across mainland U. S. A. Bristol County in Massachusetts and Bristol County in Rhode Island are two of twenty-two counties or parishes in the United States with the name to border each other across state lines. New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park As of the census of 2000, there were 534,678 people,205,411 households, the population density was 962 people per square mile. There were 216,918 housing units at a density of 390 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was 90. 98% White,2. 03% Black or African American,0. 24% Native American,1. 26% Asian,0. 03% Pacific Islander,3. 12% from other races, and 2. 34% from two or more races

7.
Massachusetts
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It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island to the south, New Hampshire and Vermont to the north, and New York to the west. The state is named for the Massachusett tribe, which inhabited the area. The capital of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England is Boston, over 80% of Massachusetts population lives in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, a region influential upon American history, academia, and industry. Originally dependent on agriculture, fishing and trade, Massachusetts was transformed into a manufacturing center during the Industrial Revolution, during the 20th century, Massachusetts economy shifted from manufacturing to services. Modern Massachusetts is a leader in biotechnology, engineering, higher education, finance. Plymouth was the site of the first colony in New England, founded in 1620 by the Pilgrims, in 1692, the town of Salem and surrounding areas experienced one of Americas most infamous cases of mass hysteria, the Salem witch trials. In 1777, General Henry Knox founded the Springfield Armory, which during the Industrial Revolution catalyzed numerous important technological advances, in 1786, Shays Rebellion, a populist revolt led by disaffected American Revolutionary War veterans, influenced the United States Constitutional Convention. In the 18th century, the Protestant First Great Awakening, which swept the Atlantic World, in the late 18th century, Boston became known as the Cradle of Liberty for the agitation there that led to the American Revolution. The entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts has played a commercial and cultural role in the history of the United States. Before the American Civil War, Massachusetts was a center for the abolitionist, temperance, in the late 19th century, the sports of basketball and volleyball were invented in the western Massachusetts cities of Springfield and Holyoke, respectively. Many prominent American political dynasties have hailed from the state, including the Adams, both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also in Cambridge, have been ranked among the most highly regarded academic institutions in the world. Massachusetts public school students place among the top nations in the world in academic performance, the official name of the state is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. While this designation is part of the official name, it has no practical implications. Massachusetts has the position and powers within the United States as other states. Massachusetts was originally inhabited by tribes of the Algonquian language family such as the Wampanoag, Narragansett, Nipmuc, Pocomtuc, Mahican, and Massachusett. While cultivation of crops like squash and corn supplemented their diets, villages consisted of lodges called wigwams as well as longhouses, and tribes were led by male or female elders known as sachems. Between 1617 and 1619, smallpox killed approximately 90% of the Massachusetts Bay Native Americans, the first English settlers in Massachusetts, the Pilgrims, arrived via the Mayflower at Plymouth in 1620, and developed friendly relations with the native Wampanoag people. This was the second successful permanent English colony in the part of North America that later became the United States, the event known as the First Thanksgiving was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World which lasted for three days

8.
Whaling
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Whaling is the hunting of whales for their usable products like meat, oil and blubber. Its earliest forms date to at least circa 3000 BC, various coastal communities have long histories of subsistence whaling and harvesting beached whales. By the late 1930s, more than 50,000 whales were killed annually In 1986, contemporary whaling is subject to intense debate. Pro-whaling countries, notably Japan, Norway, and Iceland, wish to lift the ban on certain whale stocks for hunting, anti-whaling countries and environmental groups oppose lifting the ban. Whaling began in times and was initially confined to coastal waters. Early whaling affected the development of disparate cultures – such as Norway. The Basques were the first to catch whales commercially, and dominated the trade for five centuries, spreading to the far corners of the North Atlantic and even reaching the South Atlantic. Although prehistoric hunting and gathering is considered to have had little ecological impact. Whale oil is used today and modern commercial whaling is primarily done for food. The primary species hunted are the common minke whale and Antarctic minke whale, recent scientific surveys estimate a population of 103,000 in the northeast Atlantic. International cooperation on whaling began in 1931 and culminated in the signing of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling in 1946. Its aim is to, provide for the conservation of whale stocks. The International Whaling Commission was set up under the ICRW to decide hunting quotas, non-member countries are not bound by its regulations and conduct their own management programs. The IWC voted on July 23,1982, to establish a moratorium on commercial whaling beginning in the 1985–86 season. Since 1992, the IWCs Scientific Committee has requested that it be allowed to give proposals for some whale stocks. At the 2010 meeting of the International Whaling Commission in Morocco, Japan, Norway and Iceland have urged the organisation to lift the ban. A coalition of anti-whaling nations has offered a plan that would allow these countries to continue whaling. Their plan would also completely ban whaling in the Southern Ocean, opponents of the compromise plan want to see an end to all commercial whaling, but are willing to allow subsistence-level catches by indigenous peoples

9.
Whale
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Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. They are a grouping within the infraorder Cetacea, usually excluding dolphins. Whales, dolphins and porpoises belong to the order Cetartiodactyla with even-toed ungulates and their closest living relatives are the hippopotamuses, the two parvorders of whales, baleen whales and toothed whales, are thought to have split apart around 34 million years ago. The whales comprise eight extant families, Balaenopteridae, Balaenidae, Cetotheriidae, Eschrichtiidae, Monodontidae, Physeteridae, Kogiidae, Whales are creatures of the open ocean, they feed, mate, give birth, suckle and raise their young at sea. So extreme is their adaptation to life underwater that they are unable to survive on land. Whales range in size from the 2.6 metres and 135 kilograms dwarf sperm whale to the 29.9 metres and 190 metric tons blue whale, the sperm whale is the largest toothed predator on earth. Several species exhibit sexual dimorphism, in that the females are larger than males, baleen whales have no teeth, instead they have plates of baleen, a fringe-like structure used to expel water while retaining the krill and plankton which they feed on. They use their throat pleats to expand the mouth to take in huge gulps of water, balaenids have heads that can make up 40% of their body mass to take in water. Toothed whales, on the hand, have conical teeth designed for catching fish or squid. Some species, such as whales, are well adapted for diving to great depths to catch squid. Whales have evolved from land-living mammals, as such they must breathe air regularly, though they can remain submerged for long periods. They have blowholes located on top of their heads, through air is taken in. They are warm-blooded, and have a layer of fat, or blubber, under the skin, with streamlined fusiform bodies and two limbs that are modified into flippers, whales can travel at up to 20 knots, though they are not as flexible or agile as seals. Whales produce a variety of vocalizations, notably the extended songs of the humpback whale. Although whales are widespread, most species prefer the waters of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Species such as humpbacks and blue whales are capable of travelling thousands of miles without feeding, males typically mate with multiple females every year, but females only mate every two to three years. Calves are typically born in the spring and summer months and females bear all the responsibility for raising them, mothers of some species fast and nurse their young for one to two years. Once relentlessly hunted for their products, whales are now protected by international law, the North Atlantic right whales nearly became extinct in the twentieth century, with a population low of 450, and the North Pacific gray whale population is ranked Critically Endangered by the IUCN

10.
Corset
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A corset is a garment worn to hold and train the torso into a desired shape for aesthetic or medical purposes. Both men and women are known to wear corsets, though this item was for years an integral part of womens wardrobes. Since the late 20th century, the industry has borrowed the term corset to refer to tops which, to varying degrees. While these modern corsets and corset tops often feature lacing or boning and generally imitate a historical style of corsets, they have little, if any. Genuine corsets are made by a corsetmaker and are frequently fitted to the individual wearer. The word corset is derived from the Old French word corps and the diminutive of body, the craft of corset construction is known as corsetry, as is the general wearing of them. Someone who makes corsets is a corsetier or corsetière, or sometimes simply a corsetmaker, in 1828, the word corset came into general use in the English language. The word was used in The Ladies Magazine to describe a quilted waistcoat that the French called un corset and it was used to differentiate the lighter corset from the heavier stays of the period. The most common and well-known use of corsets is to slim the body, for women, this most frequently emphasizes a curvy figure by reducing the waist and thereby exaggerating the bust and hips. However, in some periods, corsets have been worn to achieve a tubular straight-up-and-down shape, for men, corsets are more customarily used to slim the figure. An overbust corset encloses the torso, extending from just under the arms toward the hips, an underbust corset begins just under the breasts and extends down toward the hips. A longline corset – either overbust or underbust – extends past the iliac crest, a longline corset is ideal for those who want increased stability, have longer torsos, or want to smooth out their hips. A standard length corset will stop short of the iliac crest and is ideal for those who want increased flexibility or have a shorter torso, some corsets, in very rare instances, reach the knees. A shorter kind of corset that covers the waist area, is called a waist cincher, a corset may also include garters to hold up stockings, alternatively, a separate garter belt may be worn for that. Traditionally, a corset supports the visible dress and spreads the pressure from large dresses, such as the crinoline, at times, a corset cover is used to protect outer clothes from the corset and to smooth the lines of the corset. The original corset cover was worn under the corset to provide a layer between it and the body. Corsets were not worn next to the skin, possibly due to difficulties with laundering these items during the 19th century, as they had steel boning, the corset cover was generally in the form of a light chemise, made from cotton lawn or silk. Modern corset wearers may wear corset liners for many of the same reasons and those who lace their corsets tightly use the liners to prevent burn on their skin from the laces

11.
American Civil War
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The American Civil War was an internal conflict fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. The Union faced secessionists in eleven Southern states grouped together as the Confederate States of America, the Union won the war, which remains the bloodiest in U. S. history. Among the 34 U. S. states in February 1861, War broke out in April 1861 when Confederates attacked the U. S. fortress of Fort Sumter. The Confederacy grew to eleven states, it claimed two more states, the Indian Territory, and the southern portions of the western territories of Arizona. The Confederacy was never recognized by the United States government nor by any foreign country. The states that remained loyal, including border states where slavery was legal, were known as the Union or the North, the war ended with the surrender of all the Confederate armies and the dissolution of the Confederate government in the spring of 1865. The war had its origin in the issue of slavery. The Confederacy collapsed and 4 million slaves were freed, but before his inauguration, seven slave states with cotton-based economies formed the Confederacy. The first six to declare secession had the highest proportions of slaves in their populations, the first seven with state legislatures to resolve for secession included split majorities for unionists Douglas and Bell in Georgia with 51% and Louisiana with 55%. Alabama had voted 46% for those unionists, Mississippi with 40%, Florida with 38%, Texas with 25%, of these, only Texas held a referendum on secession. Eight remaining slave states continued to reject calls for secession, outgoing Democratic President James Buchanan and the incoming Republicans rejected secession as illegal. Lincolns March 4,1861 inaugural address declared that his administration would not initiate a civil war, speaking directly to the Southern States, he reaffirmed, I have no purpose, directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the United States where it exists. I believe I have no right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. After Confederate forces seized numerous federal forts within territory claimed by the Confederacy, efforts at compromise failed, the Confederates assumed that European countries were so dependent on King Cotton that they would intervene, but none did, and none recognized the new Confederate States of America. Hostilities began on April 12,1861, when Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter, while in the Western Theater the Union made significant permanent gains, in the Eastern Theater, the battle was inconclusive in 1861–62. The autumn 1862 Confederate campaigns into Maryland and Kentucky failed, dissuading British intervention, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which made ending slavery a war goal. To the west, by summer 1862 the Union destroyed the Confederate river navy, then much of their western armies, the 1863 Union siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi River. In 1863, Robert E. Lees Confederate incursion north ended at the Battle of Gettysburg, Western successes led to Ulysses S. Grants command of all Union armies in 1864

12.
Kerosene
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Kerosene, also known as paraffin, lamp oil and coal oil, is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum, widely used as a fuel in industry as well as households. Its name derives from Greek, κηρός meaning wax, and was registered as a trademark by Abraham Gesner in 1854 before evolving into a genericized trademark and it is sometimes spelled kerosine in scientific and industrial usage. Liquid paraffin is a more viscous and highly refined product which is used as a laxative, paraffin wax is a waxy solid extracted from petroleum. Kerosene is widely used to power jet engines of aircraft and some rocket engines, in parts of Asia, where the price of kerosene is subsidized, it fuels outboard motors on small fishing boats. World total kerosene consumption for all purposes is equivalent to about 1.2 million barrels per day, to prevent confusion between kerosene and the much more flammable and volatile gasoline, some jurisdictions regulate markings or colorings for containers used to store or dispense kerosene. For example, in the United States, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania requires that portable containers used at retail service stations be colored blue and it is miscible in petroleum solvents but immiscible in water. The American Society for Testing and Materials standard specification D-3699-78 recognizes two grades of kerosene, grades 1-K and 2-K, regardless of crude oil source or processing history, kerosenes major components are branched and straight chain alkanes and naphthenes, which normally account for at least 70% by volume. Aromatic hydrocarbons in this range, such as alkylbenzenes and alkylnaphthalenes. Olefins are usually not present at more than 5% by volume, the flash point of kerosene is between 37 and 65 °C, and its autoignition temperature is 220 °C. The pour point of kerosene depends on grade, with aviation fuel standardized at −47 °C. 1-K grade kerosene freezes around -40 °C, heat of combustion of kerosene is similar to that of diesel fuel, its lower heating value is 43.1 MJ/kg, and its higher heating value is 46.2 MJ/kg. In the United Kingdom, two grades of heating oil are defined, BS2869 Class C1 is the lightest grade used for lanterns, camping stoves, wick heaters, and mixed with gasoline in some vintage combustion engines as a substitute for tractor vaporising oil. BS2869 Class C2 is a heavier distillate, which is used as heating oil. Premium kerosene is sold in 5 or 20 liter containers from hardware, camping. Standard kerosene is usually dispensed in bulk by a tanker and is undyed, National and international standards define the properties of several grades of kerosene used for jet fuel. Flash point and freezing point properties are of particular interest for operation and safety, the process of distilling crude oil/petroleum into kerosene, as well as other hydrocarbon compounds, was first written about in the 9th century by the Persian scholar Rāzi. In his Kitab al-Asrar, the physician and chemist Razi described two methods for the production of kerosene, termed naft abyad, using an apparatus called an alembic, one method used clay as an absorbent, whereas the other method used ammonium chloride. The distillation process was repeated until all most of the volatile hydrocarbon fractions had been removed, Kerosene was also produced during the same period from oil shale and bitumen by heating the rock to extract the oil, which was then distilled

13.
Petroleum
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Petroleum is a naturally occurring, yellow-to-black liquid found in geological formations beneath the Earths surface, which is commonly refined into various types of fuels. Components of petroleum are separated using a technique called fractional distillation and it consists of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other organic compounds. The name petroleum covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude oil and petroleum products that are made up of refined crude oil. A fossil fuel, petroleum is formed when large quantities of dead organisms, usually zooplankton and algae, are buried underneath sedimentary rock, Petroleum has mostly been recovered by oil drilling. Drilling is carried out studies of structural geology, sedimentary basin analysis. Petroleum is used in manufacturing a variety of materials. Concern over the depletion of the earths finite reserves of oil, the burning of fossil fuels plays the major role in the current episode of global warming. The word petroleum comes from Greek, πέτρα for rocks and Greek, the term was found in 10th-century Old English sources. It was used in the treatise De Natura Fossilium, published in 1546 by the German mineralogist Georg Bauer, Petroleum, in one form or another, has been used since ancient times, and is now important across society, including in economy, politics and technology. Great quantities of it were found on the banks of the river Issus, ancient Persian tablets indicate the medicinal and lighting uses of petroleum in the upper levels of their society. By 347 AD, oil was produced from bamboo-drilled wells in China, early British explorers to Myanmar documented a flourishing oil extraction industry based in Yenangyaung that, in 1795, had hundreds of hand-dug wells under production. The mythological origins of the oil fields at Yenangyaung, and its hereditary monopoly control by 24 families, Pechelbronn is said to be the first European site where petroleum has been explored and used. The still active Erdpechquelle, a spring where petroleum appears mixed with water has been used since 1498, Oil sands have been mined since the 18th century. In Wietze in lower Saxony, natural asphalt/bitumen has been explored since the 18th century, both in Pechelbronn as in Wietze, the coal industry dominated the petroleum technologies. In 1848 Young set up a small business refining the crude oil, Young eventually succeeded, by distilling cannel coal at a low heat, in creating a fluid resembling petroleum, which when treated in the same way as the seep oil gave similar products. The production of oils and solid paraffin wax from coal formed the subject of his patent dated 17 October 1850. In 1850 Young & Meldrum and Edward William Binney entered into partnership under the title of E. W. Binney & Co. at Bathgate in West Lothian, the worlds first oil refinery was built in 1856 by Ignacy Łukasiewicz. The demand for petroleum as a fuel for lighting in North America, edwin Drakes 1859 well near Titusville, Pennsylvania, is popularly considered the first modern well

14.
Baleen
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Baleen is a filter-feeder system inside the mouths of baleen whales. The baleen system works by opening its mouth underwater and taking in water. The whale then pushes the water out, and animals such as krill are filtered by the baleen, Baleen is similar to bristles and is made of keratin, the same substance found in human fingernails and hair. Some whales, such as the whale, have longer baleen than others. Other whales, such as the whale, only use one side of their baleen. These baleen bristles are arranged in plates across the jaw of the whale. Baleen is often called whalebone, but that also can refer to the normal bones of whales. Depending on the species, a plate can be 0.5 to 3.5 metres long. Its hairy fringes are called baleen hair or whalebone-hair and they are also called baleen bristles, which in sei whales are highly calcified, calcification functioning to increase their stiffness. Baleen plates are broader at the gumline, the plates have been compared to sieves or Venetian blinds. The word baleen derives from the Latin bālaena, related to the Greek phalaina – both of which mean whale, the oldest true fossils of baleen are only 15 million years old, but baleen rarely fossilizes, and scientists believe it originated considerably earlier than that. Baleen is believed to have evolved around thirty years ago, possibly from a hard, gummy upper jaw, like the one a Dalls porpoise has. The transition from teeth to baleen is proposed to have occurred stepwise and it is known that modern mysticetes have teeth initially and then develop baleen plate germs in utero, but lose their dentition and have only baleen during their juvenile years and adulthood. However, developing mysticetes do not produce tooth enamel because at some point this trait evolved to become a pseudogene and this is likely to have occurred about 28 million years ago and proves that dentition is an ancestral state of mysticetes. Further research suggests that the baleen of Aetiocetus was arranged in bundles between widely spaced teeth, if true, this combination of baleen and dentition in Aetiocetus would act as a transition state between odontocetes and mysticetes. It would be unlikely for all of these changes to occur at once. Therefore, it is proposed that Oligocene aetiocetids possess both ancestral and descendent character states regarding feeding strategies and this makes them mosaic taxa, showing that either baleen evolved before dentition was lost or that the traits for filter feeding originally evolved for other functions. It also shows that the evolution could have occurred gradually because the state was originally maintained

15.
Northeastern United States
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The Northeast is one of the four regions defined by the Census Bureau for the collection and analysis of statistics. The Census Bureau-defined region has an area of 181,324 sq mi with 162,257 square miles of that being land mass. Though lacking a unified identity, the Northeastern region is the nations most economically developed, densely populated. Of the nations four census regions, the Northeast is the second most urban, with 85 percent of its residing in urban areas. The region is subdivided into New England and the Mid-Atlantic States and this definition has been essentially unchanged since 1880 and is widely used as a standard for data tabulation. C. Similarly, the Geological Society of America defines the Northeast as these same states but with the addition of Maryland, the narrowest definitions include only the states of New England. Other more restrictive definitions include New England and New York as part of the Northeast United States, States beyond the Census Bureau definition that other entities include in the Northeast United States are, Delaware, Maryland, and Washington, D. C. Delaware, Maryland, Washington, D. C. and West Virginia Delaware, Maryland, Washington, most did not settle in North America until the 17th century. Among the many tribes that inhabited this area were those made up the Iroquois nations. In the United States of the 21st century,18 federally recognized tribes reside in the Northeast, the two cultural and geographic regions that form parts of the Northeastern region have distinct histories. The first Europeans to settle New England were Pilgrims from England, the Pilgrims arrived by the Mayflower ship and founded Plymouth Colony so they could practice religion freely. Ten years later, a group of Puritans settled north of Plymouth Colony in Boston to form Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1636, colonists established Connecticut Colony and Providence Plantations, Providence was founded by Roger Williams, who was banished by Massachusetts for his beliefs in freedom of religion, and it was the first colony to guarantee all citizens freedom of worship. Anne Hutchinson, who was banished by Massachusetts, formed the town of Portsmouth. Providence, Portsmouth, and two towns consolidated to form the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Although the first settlers of New England were motivated by religion, in recent history. In a 2009 Gallup survey, less than half of residents in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts reported religion as an important part of their daily life. In a 2010 Gallup survey, less than 30% of residents in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, New England played a prominent role in early American education

16.
Southern United States
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The Southern United States, commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South, is a region of the United States of America. The South does not fully match the geographic south of the United States, arizona and New Mexico, which are geographically in the southern part of the country, are rarely considered part, while West Virginia, which separated from Virginia in 1863, commonly is. Some scholars have proposed definitions of the South that do not coincide neatly with state boundaries, while the states of Delaware and Maryland, as well as the District of Columbia permitted slavery prior to the start of the Civil War, they remained with the Union. However, the United States Census Bureau puts them in the South, usually, the South is defined as including the southeastern and south-central United States. The region is known for its culture and history, having developed its own customs, musical styles, and cuisines, the Southern ethnic heritage is diverse and includes strong European, African, and some Native American components. Since the late 1960s, black people have many offices in Southern states, especially in the coastal states of Virginia. Historically, the South relied heavily on agriculture, and was rural until after 1945. It has since become more industrialized and urban and has attracted national and international migrants, the American South is now among the fastest-growing areas in the United States. Houston is the largest city in the Southern United States, sociological research indicates that Southern collective identity stems from political, demographic, and cultural distinctiveness from the rest of the United States. The region contains almost all of the Bible Belt, an area of high Protestant church attendance and predominantly conservative, indeed, studies have shown that Southerners are more conservative than non-Southerners in several areas, including religion, morality, international relations and race relations. Apart from its climate, the experience in the South increasingly resembles the rest of the nation. The arrival of millions of Northerners and millions of Hispanics meant the introduction of cultural values, the process has worked both ways, however, with aspects of Southern culture spreading throughout a greater portion of the rest of the United States in a process termed Southernization. The question of how to define the subregions in the South has been the focus of research for nearly a century, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, the Southern region of the United States includes sixteen states. As of 2010, an estimated 114,555,744 people, or thirty-seven percent of all U. S. residents, lived in the South, the nations most populous region. Other terms related to the South include, The Old South, the New South, usually including the South Atlantic States. The Solid South, region largely controlled by the Democratic Party from 1877 to 1964, before that, blacks were elected to national office and many to local office through the 1880s, Populist-Republican coalitions gained victories for Fusionist candidates for governors in the 1890s. Includes at least all the 11 former Confederate States, Southeastern United States, usually including the Carolinas, the Virginias, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. The Deep South, various definitions, usually including Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, occasionally, parts of adjoining states are included

17.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany

18.
Azores
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Its main industries are agriculture, dairy farming, livestock, fishing, and tourism, which is becoming the major service activity in the region. In addition, the government of the Azores employs a large percentage of the population directly or indirectly in the service, the main settlement of the Azores is Ponta Delgada. There are nine major Azorean islands and a cluster, in three main groups. These are Flores and Corvo, to the west, Graciosa, Terceira, São Jorge, Pico, and Faial in the centre, and São Miguel, Santa Maria, and they extend for more than 600 km and lie in a northwest-southeast direction. All the islands have volcanic origins, although some, such as Santa Maria, have had no recorded activity since the islands were settled, mount Pico, on the island of Pico, is the highest point in Portugal, at 2,351 m. The Azores are actually some of the tallest mountains on the planet, measured from their base at the bottom of the ocean to their peaks, which thrust high above the surface of the Atlantic. The climate of the Azores is very mild for such a location, being influenced by its distance to continents. Due to the influence, temperatures remain mild year-round. Daytime temperatures normally fluctuate between 16 °C and 25 °C depending on season, temperatures above 30 °C or below 3 °C are unknown in the major population centres. It is also generally wet and cloudy, the culture, dialect, cuisine, and traditions of the Azorean islands vary considerably, because these once-uninhabited and remote islands were settled sporadically over a span of two centuries. However, these kinds of structures have always used in the Azores to store cereals. Detailed examination and dating to authenticate the validity of these speculations is lacking and it is unclear whether these structures are natural or man-made and whether they predate the 15th-century Portuguese colonization of the Azores. Solid confirmation of a human presence in the archipelago has not yet been published. The islands were known in the century and parts of them appear in the Atlas Catalan. In 1427, a captain sailing for Henry the Navigator, possibly Gonçalo Velho, rediscovered the Azores, but this is not certain. In Thomas Ashes 1813 work, A History of the Azores, the author identified a Fleming, Joshua Vander Berg of Bruges and he stated that the Portuguese explored the area and claimed it for Portugal. Other stories note the discovery of the first islands by sailors in the service of Henry the Navigator, although there are few documents to support the claims. Although it is said that the archipelago received its name from the goshawk

19.
Cape Verde
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Located 570 kilometres off the coast of West Africa, the islands cover a combined area of slightly over 4,000 square kilometres. The Cape Verde archipelago was uninhabited until the 15th century, when Portuguese explorers discovered and colonized the islands, ideally located for the Atlantic slave trade, the islands grew prosperous throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, attracting merchants, privateers, and pirates. The end of slavery in the 19th century led to economic decline, Cape Verde gradually recovered as an important commercial center and stopover for shipping routes. Incorporated as a department of Portugal in 1951, the islands continued to agitate for independence. Since the early 1990s, Cape Verde has been a representative democracy. Lacking natural resources, its economy is mostly service-oriented, with a growing focus on tourism. Its population of around 512,000 is mostly of mixed European and sub-Saharan African heritage, a sizeable diaspora community exists across the world, slightly outnumbering inhabitants on the islands. Historically, the name Cape Verde has been used in English for the archipelago and, since independence in 1975, for the country. In 2013, the Cape Verdean government determined that the Portuguese designation Cabo Verde would henceforth be used for official purposes, such as at the United Nations, Cape Verde is a member of the African Union. The name of the stems from the nearby Cap-Vert, on the Senegalese coast. In 1444 Portuguese explorers had named that landmark as Cabo Verde, on 24 October 2013, the countrys delegation announced at the United Nations that the official name should no longer be translated into other languages. Instead of Cape Verde, the designation Republic of Cabo Verde is to be used, before the arrival of Europeans, the Cape Verde Islands were uninhabited. The islands of the Cape Verde archipelago were discovered by Genoese and Portuguese navigators around 1456, according to Portuguese official records, the first discoveries were made by Genoa-born António de Noli, who was afterwards appointed governor of Cape Verde by Portuguese King Afonso V. Other navigators mentioned as contributing to discoveries in the Cape Verde archipelago are Diogo Gomes, Diogo Dias, Diogo Afonso, in 1462, Portuguese settlers arrived at Santiago and founded a settlement they called Ribeira Grande. Ribeira Grande was the first permanent European settlement in the tropics, in the 16th century, the archipelago prospered from the Atlantic slave trade. Pirates occasionally attacked the Portuguese settlements, sir Francis Drake, an English corsair privateering under a letter of marque granted by the English crown, twice sacked the capital Ribeira Grande in 1585 when it was a part of the Iberian Union. After a French attack in 1712, the town declined in relative to nearby Praia. Decline in the trade in the 19th century resulted in an economic crisis

20.
African-Americans
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African Americans are an ethnic group of Americans with total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. The term may also be used to only those individuals who are descended from enslaved Africans. As a compound adjective the term is usually hyphenated as African-American, Black and African Americans constitute the third largest racial and ethnic group in the United States. Most African Americans are of West and Central African descent and are descendants of enslaved peoples within the boundaries of the present United States. On average, African Americans are of 73. 2–80. 9% West African, 18–24% European, according to US Census Bureau data, African immigrants generally do not self-identify as African American. The overwhelming majority of African immigrants identify instead with their own respective ethnicities, immigrants from some Caribbean, Central American and South American nations and their descendants may or may not also self-identify with the term. After the founding of the United States, black people continued to be enslaved, believed to be inferior to white people, they were treated as second-class citizens. The Naturalization Act of 1790 limited U. S. citizenship to whites only, in 2008, Barack Obama became the first African American to be elected President of the United States. The first African slaves arrived via Santo Domingo to the San Miguel de Gualdape colony, the ill-fated colony was almost immediately disrupted by a fight over leadership, during which the slaves revolted and fled the colony to seek refuge among local Native Americans. De Ayllón and many of the colonists died shortly afterwards of an epidemic, the settlers and the slaves who had not escaped returned to Haiti, whence they had come. The first recorded Africans in British North America were 20 and odd negroes who came to Jamestown, as English settlers died from harsh conditions, more and more Africans were brought to work as laborers. Typically, young men or women would sign a contract of indenture in exchange for transportation to the New World, the landowner received 50 acres of land from the state for each servant purchased from a ships captain. An indentured servant would work for years without wages. The status of indentured servants in early Virginia and Maryland was similar to slavery, servants could be bought, sold, or leased and they could be physically beaten for disobedience or running away. Africans could legally raise crops and cattle to purchase their freedom and they raised families, married other Africans and sometimes intermarried with Native Americans or English settlers. By the 1640s and 1650s, several African families owned farms around Jamestown and some became wealthy by colonial standards and purchased indentured servants of their own. In 1640, the Virginia General Court recorded the earliest documentation of slavery when they sentenced John Punch. One of Dutch African arrivals, Anthony Johnson, would own one of the first black slaves, John Casor

21.
Lewis Hine
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Lewis Wickes Hine was an American sociologist and photographer. Hine used his camera as a tool for social reform and his photographs were instrumental in changing child labor laws in the United States. Hine was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, on September 26,1874, after his father was killed in an accident, Hine began working and saved his money for a college education. He studied sociology at the University of Chicago, Columbia University and he became a teacher in New York City at the Ethical Culture School, where he encouraged his students to use photography as an educational medium. Hine led his classes to Ellis Island in New York Harbor. Between 1904 and 1909, Hine took over 200 plates and came to the realization that documentary photography could be employed as a tool for social change, in 1908 Hine became the photographer for the National Child Labor Committee, leaving his teaching position. Over the next decade, Hine documented child labor, with focus on the use of labor in the Carolina Piedmont. In 1913, he documented child laborers among cotton mill workers with a series of Francis Galtons composite portraits, Hines work for the NCLC was often dangerous. As a photographer, he was threatened with violence or even death by factory police. At the time, the immorality of child labor was meant to be hidden from the public, photography was not only prohibited but also posed a serious threat to the industry. To gain entry to the mills, mines and factories, Hine was forced to assume many guises, at times he was a fire inspector, postcard vendor, bible salesman, or even an industrial photographer making a record of factory machinery. During and after World War I, he photographed American Red Cross relief work in Europe, in the 1920s and early 1930s, Hine made a series of work portraits, which emphasized the human contribution to modern industry. In 1930, Hine was commissioned to document the construction of the Empire State Building and he photographed the workers in precarious positions while they secured the steel framework of the structure, taking many of the same risks that the workers endured. In order to obtain the best vantage points, Hine was swung out in a specially-designed basket 1,000 ft above Fifth Avenue and he also served as chief photographer for the Works Progress Administrations National Research Project, which studied changes in industry and their effect on employment. Hine was also a faculty member of the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, in 1936, Hine was selected as the photographer for the National Research Project of the Works Projects Administration, but his work there was not completed. The last years of his life were filled with professional struggles by loss of government, few people were interested in his work, past or present, and Hine lost his house and applied for welfare. He died on November 3,1940 at Dobbs Ferry Hospital in Dobbs Ferry, New York, after Hines death, his son Corydon donated his prints and negatives to the Photo League, which was dismantled in 1951. The Museum of Modern Art was offered his pictures and did not accept them, the Library of Congress holds over 5,000 Hine photographs, including examples of his child labor and Red Cross photographs, his work portraits, and his WPA and TVA images

22.
Deflation
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In economics, deflation is a decrease in the general price level of goods and services. Deflation occurs when the inflation rate falls below 0%, Inflation reduces the real value of money over time, conversely, deflation increases the real value of money – the currency of a national or regional economy. This allows one to buy goods and services than before with the same amount of money. Economists generally believe that deflation is a problem in a modern economy because it may increase the value of debt. Deflation may also aggravate recessions and lead to a deflationary spiral, Deflation is distinct from disinflation, a slow-down in the inflation rate, i. e. when inflation declines to a lower rate but is still positive. In the IS–LM model, deflation is caused by a shift in the supply and demand curve for goods and this in turn can be caused by an increase in supply, a fall in demand, or both. When prices are falling, consumers have an incentive to delay purchases and consumption until prices fall further, when purchases are delayed, productive capacity is idled and investment falls, leading to further reductions in aggregate demand. Deflation is also related to risk aversion, where the risk-adjusted return on assets drops to near zero, investors and buyers will hoard currency rather than invest it, even in the most solid of securities. This can produce a liquidity trap or it may lead to shortages that entice investments yielding more jobs, a central bank cannot, normally, charge negative interest for money, and even charging zero interest often produces less stimulative effect than slightly higher rates of interest. In a closed economy, this is because charging zero interest also means having zero return on government securities, in an open economy it creates a carry trade, and devalues the currency. A devalued currency produces higher prices for imports without necessarily stimulating exports to a like degree, Deflation is the natural condition of economies when the supply of money is fixed, or does not grow as quickly as population and the economy. When this happens, the amount of hard currency per person falls, in effect making money more scarce, and consequently. Deflation also occurs when improvements in production efficiency lower the price of goods. Competition in the marketplace often prompts those producers to apply at least some portion of these cost savings into reducing the price for their goods. When this happens, consumers pay less for goods, and consequently deflation has occurred. There was inflation during World War I, but deflation returned again after that war, most nations abandoned the gold standard in the 1930s. There is less reason to expect deflation, aside from the collapse of asset classes. Studies of the Great Depression by Ben Bernanke have indicated that, in response to decreased demand, a structural deflation existed from the 1870s until the cycle upswing that started in 1895

23.
United Textile Workers
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It waged a decades-long campaign to organize J. P. Stevens and other Southern textile manufacturers that achieved some successes. In 1901, the United Textile Workers of America was formed as an affiliate of the American Federation of Labor, the UTW, which had its greatest strength in the North, called a strike of textile workers in 1934 to protest worsening working conditions during the Great Depression. The strike was, however, a failure, especially in the South, in 1937, the Committee for Industrial Organization formed the Textile Workers Organizing Committee as an alternative to the UTW. In 1939, locals from the TWOC and the UTW merged to form the Textile Workers Union of America. The TWUA led numerous organizing campaigns in the union-resistant South, aiming to help workers achieve higher wages, health insurance and other benefits. The TWUA was an organization in Operation Dixie, the CIOs post-World War II drive to organize industries in the American South. The TWUA was able to organize new plants and revive some moribund organizations, Operation Dixie was retired by 1954. In the 1960s and 1970s the TWUA found itself in competition with other unions for representation in large Southern plants, in 1976, the TWUA merged with another garment union, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, to form the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union. After several further mergers, the TWUAs textile locals became part Workers United, Histories of UNITE. and Predecessor Unions. Bibliographies compiled by Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations Margaret Catherwood Library, patton, Randall L. Textile Organizing in a Sunbelt South Community, Northwest Georgias Carpet Industry in the Early 1960s. Oral History Interview with Scott Hoyman from Oral Histories of the American South Greenhouse, sol Stetin,95, Labor Leader Who Unionized J. P. Stevens, Dies. Crystal Lee, a Woman of Inheritance, paternalism and Protest, Southern Cotton Mill Workers and Organized Labor, 1875-1905. Inventory of the Textile Workers Union of America, South Region Records, 1947-1981, in the Southern Historical Collection, UNC-Chapel Hill. Textile Workers Union of America, Georgia-Tennessee-Alabama Joint Board records, 1952-1980, Georgia State University Special Collections Department, Georgia State University Library Atlanta, GA 30303-3202. Online research guide Accessed May 24,2005, Textile Workers Union of America, Northwest Georgia Joint Board records, 1949-1976. Georgia State University Special Collections Department, Georgia State University Library Atlanta, Online research guide Accessed May 24,2005. Textile Workers Union of America Philadelphia Joint Board Records, 1921-1980 Temple University Libraries Urban Archives, identification, URB54 Online research guide Accessed May 24,2005

Strike action
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Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances, Strikes became common during the Industrial Revolution, when mass labor became important in factories and mines. In most countries, strike acti

1.
Female tailors on strike, New York City, February 1910.

2.
Strike action (1879), painting by Theodor Kittelsen

3.
Agitated workers face the factory owner in The Strike, painted by Robert Koehler in 1886

4.
A rally of the trade union UNISON in Oxford during a strike on 2006-03-28.

New Bedford, Massachusetts
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New Bedford is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 95,072. The city, along with Fall River and Taunton, make up the three largest cities in the South Coast region of Massachusetts, the Greater Providence-Fall River-New Bedford area is home to the largest Portuguese-American com

1.
New Bedford Harbor

2.
North Congregational Church, Purchase Street, 1906

3.
New Bedford City Hall

4.
View of historic New Bedford harbor

Communist Party, USA
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The Communist Party USA is a communist political party in the United States. Established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America, it has a long, complex history that is tied with the U. S. labor movement. For the first half of the 20th century, the Communist Party was an influential force in various struggles for democratic rights.

1.
Executive Secretary of the Communist Labor Party Alfred Wagenknecht.

2.
Communist Party of the United States of America

3.
Executive Secretary C.E. Ruthenberg, 1924.

4.
CPUSA General Secretary Earl Browder

American Federation of Labor
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The American Federation of Labor was a national federation of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in December 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers of the Cigar Makers International Union was elected president of the Federation at its

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AFL

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Terence Powderly, Grand Master Workman of the Knights of Labor, whose refusal to negotiate with craft unions led to formation of the AFL.

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Samuel Gompers in the office of the American Federation of Labor, 1887.

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Samuel Gompers with John Mitchell of the United Mine Workers of America.

1926 Passaic textile strike
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The 1926 Passaic textile strike was a work stoppage by over 15,000 woolen mill workers in and around Passaic, New Jersey, over wage issues in several factories in the vicinity. It was the first Communist-led work stoppage in the United States, the event was memorialized by a seven reel silent movie intended to generate sympathy and funds for the st

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Passaic strikers and their children picketing outside the White House in Washington, DC.

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Albert Weisbord, the primary organizer of the strike, was removed in the summer of 1926. He wrote a substantial pamphlet and went on a speaking tour detailing his experiences.

Bristol County, Massachusetts
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Bristol County is a county in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. As of the 2010 census, the population was 548,285, some governmental functions are performed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, others by the county, and others by local towns and cities. The property deed records are kept in Taunton, Attleboro, Fall River, Bristol County is part o

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Bristol Superior Court House

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Bristol County Superior Courthouse in Taunton.

Massachusetts
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It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island to the south, New Hampshire and Vermont to the north, and New York to the west. The state is named for the Massachusett tribe, which inhabited the area. The capital of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England is Boston, over 80% of Massachuse

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A portion of the north-central Pioneer Valley in Sunderland

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Flag

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Many coastal areas in Massachusetts provide breeding areas for species such as the piping plover

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The Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor by William Halsall (1882). The Pilgrims were a group of Puritans who founded Plymouth in 1620.

Whaling
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Whaling is the hunting of whales for their usable products like meat, oil and blubber. Its earliest forms date to at least circa 3000 BC, various coastal communities have long histories of subsistence whaling and harvesting beached whales. By the late 1930s, more than 50,000 whales were killed annually In 1986, contemporary whaling is subject to in

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One of the oldest known whaling paintings, by Bonaventura Peeters, at The Mariners' Museum

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A modern whaling vessel

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Young butchered beluga on the beach of the inuit village of Salluit, Quebec.

Whale
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Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. They are a grouping within the infraorder Cetacea, usually excluding dolphins. Whales, dolphins and porpoises belong to the order Cetartiodactyla with even-toed ungulates and their closest living relatives are the hippopotamuses, the two parvorders of whale

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Southern right whale

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The hippopotamuses are the sister clade to the Cetacea, which contains whales, dolphins and porpoises.

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Basilosaurus skeleton

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Features of a sperm whale skeleton

Corset
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A corset is a garment worn to hold and train the torso into a desired shape for aesthetic or medical purposes. Both men and women are known to wear corsets, though this item was for years an integral part of womens wardrobes. Since the late 20th century, the industry has borrowed the term corset to refer to tops which, to varying degrees. While the

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Underbust corset with 16" waist

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A drawing of a luxury hourglass corset from 1878, featuring a busk fastening at the front and lacing at the back

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Custom-fitted overbust corset made by corsetière in 2006

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X-Rays of women in corsets.

American Civil War
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The American Civil War was an internal conflict fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865. The Union faced secessionists in eleven Southern states grouped together as the Confederate States of America, the Union won the war, which remains the bloodiest in U. S. history. Among the 34 U. S. states in February 1861, War broke out in April 1861 whe

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New Orleans the largest cotton exporting port for New England and Great Britain textile mills, shipping Mississippi River Valley goods from North, South and Border states.

Kerosene
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Kerosene, also known as paraffin, lamp oil and coal oil, is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum, widely used as a fuel in industry as well as households. Its name derives from Greek, κηρός meaning wax, and was registered as a trademark by Abraham Gesner in 1854 before evolving into a genericized trademark and it is some

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An Australian kerosene bottle, containing blue-dyed kerosene

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Persian scholar Rāzi (or Rhazes) was the first to distill kerosene in the 9th century

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A queue for kerosene. Moscow, Russia, 1920s

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A truck delivering kerosene in Japan

Petroleum
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Petroleum is a naturally occurring, yellow-to-black liquid found in geological formations beneath the Earths surface, which is commonly refined into various types of fuels. Components of petroleum are separated using a technique called fractional distillation and it consists of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other organic compounds.

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Pumpjack pumping an oil well near Lubbock, Texas

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An oil refinery in Mina-Al-Ahmadi, Kuwait

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Natural petroleum spring in Korňa, Slovakia

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Oil derrick in Okemah, Oklahoma, 1922

Baleen
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Baleen is a filter-feeder system inside the mouths of baleen whales. The baleen system works by opening its mouth underwater and taking in water. The whale then pushes the water out, and animals such as krill are filtered by the baleen, Baleen is similar to bristles and is made of keratin, the same substance found in human fingernails and hair. Som

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Baleen hair is attached to each baleen plate

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Inupiat baleen basket, with an ivory handle, made by Kinguktuk (1871–1941) of Barrow, Alaska. Displayed at the Museum of Man, San Diego, California.

Northeastern United States
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The Northeast is one of the four regions defined by the Census Bureau for the collection and analysis of statistics. The Census Bureau-defined region has an area of 181,324 sq mi with 162,257 square miles of that being land mass. Though lacking a unified identity, the Northeastern region is the nations most economically developed, densely populated

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High Point Monument as seen from Lake Marcia at High Point, Sussex County, the highest elevation in New Jersey at 1803 feet above sea level

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The states shown in the two darkest red shades are included in the United States Census Bureau Northeast Region, with states in lighter shades included in other regional definitions (see Composition).

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Cape Cod Bay, a leading tourist destination in Massachusetts

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The Palisades along the Hudson River, New Jersey

Southern United States
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The Southern United States, commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South, is a region of the United States of America. The South does not fully match the geographic south of the United States, arizona and New Mexico, which are geographically in the southern part of the country, are rarely considered part, while West Virgin

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Texas Hill Country

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The Southern United States as defined by the United States Census Bureau. The "South" and its regions are defined in various ways, however. (See Geography section.)

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Bluegrass region in Kentucky

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Glass Mountains at Glass Mountains State Park, Oklahoma

World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts i

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Clockwise from the top: The aftermath of shelling during the Battle of the Somme, Mark V tanks cross the Hindenburg Line, HMS Irresistible sinks after hitting a mine in the Dardanelles, a British Vickers machine gun crew wears gas masks during the Battle of the Somme, Albatros D.III fighters of Jagdstaffel 11

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Sarajevo citizens reading a poster with the proclamation of the Austrian annexation in 1908.

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This picture is usually associated with the arrest of Gavrilo Princip, although some believe it depicts Ferdinand Behr, a bystander.

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Serbian Army Blériot XI "Oluj", 1915.

Azores
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Its main industries are agriculture, dairy farming, livestock, fishing, and tourism, which is becoming the major service activity in the region. In addition, the government of the Azores employs a large percentage of the population directly or indirectly in the service, the main settlement of the Azores is Ponta Delgada. There are nine major Azorea

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Mount Pico and the green landscape, emblematic of the archipelago of the Azores

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1584 map of the Azores.

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Angra do Heroísmo, the oldest continuously-settled town in the archipelago of the Azores and UNESCO World Heritage Site

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This article is about the archipelago. For the area of high pressure, see Azores High.

Cape Verde
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Located 570 kilometres off the coast of West Africa, the islands cover a combined area of slightly over 4,000 square kilometres. The Cape Verde archipelago was uninhabited until the 15th century, when Portuguese explorers discovered and colonized the islands, ideally located for the Atlantic slave trade, the islands grew prosperous throughout the 1

African-Americans
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African Americans are an ethnic group of Americans with total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. The term may also be used to only those individuals who are descended from enslaved Africans. As a compound adjective the term is usually hyphenated as African-American, Black and African Americans constitute the third la

Lewis Hine
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Lewis Wickes Hine was an American sociologist and photographer. Hine used his camera as a tool for social reform and his photographs were instrumental in changing child labor laws in the United States. Hine was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, on September 26,1874, after his father was killed in an accident, Hine began working and saved his money for a

Deflation
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In economics, deflation is a decrease in the general price level of goods and services. Deflation occurs when the inflation rate falls below 0%, Inflation reduces the real value of money over time, conversely, deflation increases the real value of money – the currency of a national or regional economy. This allows one to buy goods and services than

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World GDP (PPP) per capita by country (2014)

United Textile Workers
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It waged a decades-long campaign to organize J. P. Stevens and other Southern textile manufacturers that achieved some successes. In 1901, the United Textile Workers of America was formed as an affiliate of the American Federation of Labor, the UTW, which had its greatest strength in the North, called a strike of textile workers in 1934 to protest